VP Robredo SWS Satisfaction Rating Drops Significantly

The people are no longer satisfied with the Vice President Leni Robredo performance as her SWS satisfaction rating drops. It went down by 11 points in the first quarter of the year, according to a new Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that also showed a slight drop amid still steady ratings for other top officials of government.

Robredo obtained a net satisfaction rating of +26 in the Social Weather Stations' survey of 1,200 respondents from March 25 to 28. Her score qualifies as "moderate," and is 11 percentage points down from her "good" +37 rating last December.

The March 25 to 28 survey was conducted days after Robredo revealed alleged irregularities in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs via a video message to the United Nations.

The video message had prompted House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to mull an an impeachment complaint against Robredo, whom he accused of betrayal of public trust.

The same survey showed Alvarez enjoying a 2 percentage point increase in his net satisfaction rating to a "moderate" +12 from a "moderate" +10.

Meanwhile, Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III and Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno also saw drops in their satisfaction marks, SWS noted.

Pimentel's rating dropped one grade to a "moderate" +37 from December’s "good" +49. Sereno's rating stayed "moderate", but dropped 2 points to +14 from +16.

Source

SWS Survey: Philippines Jobless Rate at 9-year Low, Duterte Achievement

Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey company released a report on Thursday showing the joblessness rate in the Philippines during the third quarter was at 18.4%, which is the lowest in 9 years and lower than the 21.7% rating rated in June.

The survey was done on September 24-27, 2016 with among 1,200 adult respondents nationwide. The survey has a ±3-point sampling error margin.

The 18.4% joblessness rate translated to 8.2 million Filipinos who have a job at present, plus those without a job at present and looking for a job. Here's a summary of the survey results from SWS:

 -   8.0% or an estimated 3.6 million adults who voluntarily left their jobs compared to June’s 10.3% or estimated 4.7 million adults;
 -   7.4% or an estimated 3.3 million adults who lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control, roughly steady from the 6.7% or an estimated 3.1 million adults in the second quarter; and
 -   3.1% or an estimated 1.4 million adults who were first-time job seekers, compared to the 4.7% or an estimated 2.2 million adults in the June survey.

People are also optimistic about job availability. 44% of the participats said that the number of available jobs in the next 12 months will increase. It is higher than the 39% reported in April. Only 28% said there will be no change in job availability, while 13% only said it will decrease.

President Rodrigo Duterte is aiming to reduce the unemployment rate in the Philippines to as low as 4% by 2022. As of July 2016, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the unemployment rate is at 5.4% while underemployment is at 17.3%.